Letter to the editor: The American Library Association, pornography peddler

OPINION:

This year marks the 150th anniversary of the American Library Association, which celebrates its potential to “transform lives.” If the ALA is transforming lives, then it’s by normalizing pornography, and most Americans don’t even know it.

I just read through the ALA-backed books “Gender Queer” and “Let’s Talk About It” (“it” being alternative sex). These titles discuss sex toys and oral sex. When media publications reference these books, they are forced to issue editor’s notes for “explicit material” and “graphic content,” yet the ALA recommends them for children. Daring to point out the obvious inappropriateness gets you accused of supporting “book bans.”

True book bans are wrong, and they don’t exist in America. “Gender Queer” and “Let’s Talk About It” are easily found on Amazon.com and at other sellers. Is Pornhub being banned if a librarian chooses not to share its URL with a child? No. For better or worse, it, like the aforementioned books, is readily available online.

Early childhood education is neither the time nor place for this sort of material, and most Americans agree. Most also oppose book bans and support restrictions to book access based on age appropriateness. Two things can be true at once: Books shouldn’t be banned, and the ALA shouldn’t be endorsing pornography for children.

The ALA once used Common Sense Media as a selection tool to recommend books because the website provided parents with warnings, using a 1-to-5 scale for explicitness. As of now, the ALA has blacklisted Common Sense Media as a resource at school libraries and state library associations. By the ALA’s logic, that is a book ban.

There is a reason the ALA is losing money and members and why President Sam Helmick (“they/them”) is begging for funding. We don’t want the ALA or individual libraries engaging in gender politics, participating in sexual revolutions or peddling porn to children.

We just want them to give children wonderful books to read, regardless of the author.

DAN KLEINMAN

Executive director, World Library Association

Owner, SafeLibraries

Chatham, New Jersey